HISD TV: it’s all about the trustees

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The capsule review of Houston ISD’s first televised board meeting last Thursday is two thumbs down. It was neither good TV nor good public policy.

Viewers were put through the sort of excruciating self-promotion and hyperbole that has given HISD a reputation for shameless “spin.”

Spin is actually a kind word for what was old-fashioned, heavy handed propaganda by trustees.

They patted themselves and each other on the backs for an award given to the board (“the greatest urban school district in the United States,” proclaimed trustee Manuel Rodriguez).

They praised their recent travels to San Diego (“We all sat there with our tablets and took lots of notes,” said trustee Dianne Johnson of the National School Board Association visit), Washington, D.C. and Austin.

They even praised themselves for doing their jobs (“beat beyond belief but it felt so good,” said trustee Greg Meyers about helping with a “makeover” of a school in his district).

The nearly four-hour meeting was remarkably devoid of pure recognition of student and school achievement. Any glory was reflected back at the trustees or “community partners”:

Yates High School’s state champion basketball team was briefly recognized, then players presented autographed basketballs and hung large, Olympic-style medals with ribbons around each trustee’s neck. The title was “a journey we couldn’t have made without your support,” said the coach.

What originally seemed like acknowledgment of straight-A students at Jefferson Davis High School turned into honoring the corporate sponsor who bought letterman-style jackets for the youngsters.

Ditto for an honored teacher, brought to the podium for a few kind words — and more abundant praise for the big corporation and big-name athlete who honored her.

Altogether, 33 minutes was devoted to such ceremonial gestures, and another 44 minutes was devoted to trustees’ individual, largely self-serving reports on their activities.

If you were looking for an open discussion of educational issues and for enlightenment about the governing process of HISD, this was not the place to find it (except perhaps indirectly).

Superintendent. Abe Saavedra was treated like the lame duck he is, called on for brief remarks about concerns that stimulus funds funneled through the state won’t find their way to school districts.

No attempt was made to explain agenda items. Board President Larry Marshall and First Vice President Natasha Kamrani, who shared duties chairing the meeting, uttered an alphabet soup of letters and numbers and called for votes that were briefly flashed on screen electronically.

What they were voting on was largely a mystery, even if you were following on the 85-page agenda available online. HISD is not known for making taxpayer monitoring very user-friendly.

Most offensive was the blackout — no, the censorship — of the public comment portion of the meeting. The district is using federal student privacy regulations as a lame excuse not to televise the one portion of the meeting that could cloud their sunny picture of perfection.

(The argument that speakers might get personal about students didn’t hold water from the beginning. In introducing an ROTC cadet who led the Pledge of Allegiance, Marshall ticked off several personal items, including her 3.43 GPA. She looked mortified.)

Indeed, these elected officials denied their constituents — a passionate group of speakers bemoaning conditions at Worthing High School — the same opportunity to be heard that they’re now enjoying.

Which brings us to what these trustees are really enjoying. With five out of the nine up for re-election in just a few months, perhaps it’s not so much “transparency” that they’re after but some free airtime on HISD’s slickly run TV channel. They got it, but if anyone’s watching, “Thursday Night Live” won’t get them any votes.